ActiveRain Success Stories

"We Love Active Rain! This is why we are here after all! Active Rain has become an integral part of our business plan since joining in October 2006’. The Winter Selling/Buying Season is here. the many sellers and buyers in the Winter market. Winter is one of my favorite times of the year. Inventory is still very low. The home sellers and buyers are gearing up for a very busy Winter season. The Heat is On! The Heat is also in the market here in NJ. There is an abundance of activity in our area. Inventory is still low but climbing. The Summer/Fall season had been very busy. We are excited about this years market. The weather has gotten much Cooler lately and activity is increasing along with the excitement of the even cooler temps to come. Bergen County is buzzing with activity. It has brought out many buyers now it seems. The market has heated up again for what we like to call the early beginnings of the second Spring Market here in NJ. The buyers are becoming more active as the season has been changing slowly to cooler temps here. Active Rain is helping us get out in front of our customers on a local basis. We are seeing many buyers coming out in this season here in the northeast. The first time homebuyer credit is long gone but the interests rates are still historically low and continue to stay historically low. The market is getting hotter. Localism is my playground and has brought me Google juice galore. It’s so much more than just a Social Network or a place to go to find comfort from friends. This network offers all the news on the latest technology and ways to apply that technology to your business. We’ve found groups to join to share ideas with colleagues and that has been fun as well as extremely helpful. Active Rain is the first place we go to find agents across the country when we need referral contacts. The search engines love Active Rain and that really helps to boost us so the public can find us. It offers a platform for us to post market reports, local information about our area and tips for buyers and sellers. What did we do before Active Rain?! I guess we'll never know the answer to that one.... We love this place!"

"Let's hear it for the Winter Selling and Buying Season! Yay! Now that Fall is over and winter will is here, we look forward to the good times ahead. The Winter buying season has begun. Did I mention this is my favorite time of the year? The cooler temps are here but the market is not showing any slow down. There are many buyers are out and looking for houses now with a renewed fervor as new listings are coming on the market everyday. The inventory is still very low but has been climbing steadily as buyers realize that this is the time to buy. We need your listings. We have been showing many homes recently. Buyers are coming out in droves in search of bargains. Many new homes that are priced appropriately are moving quickly as well. Price is key in this market. The Pascack Valley and Bergen County areas are booming. It looks to be a better year in New Jersey for Real Estate. Interest rates are still historically very low and continue to stay very low. I have passed my fifth year anniversary here in the Rain and approaching my fifth year anniversary. I am gaining visibility in the search engines. This is priceless! This is why I love this place! I've had been here since February of 09 and am having the time of my life. This is the best Real Estate Community alive! I have been a member with my wife Lisa since October 2006 and have never delved into the blogging platform except to help out my wife with the HammersTeam Blog site. I have loved every minute here as I have learned so much since starting up my own blog. Since we have been involved with this site we have met so many incredibly talented people who are so nice and helpful. People that are willing to share knowledge and build this community to where it is now and continue it's progressive climb up. The Active Rain Community is so invigorating and helpful that I don't know what I would do without it now. This is the reason I have started up my own blog. I am so grateful to this site! Thanks Active Rain. Bob Hammerstein"

"I have primarily used Active Rain for Referrals and have had great success. I have met some really great Realtors out there who are very active and forward thinking. I look forward to 2015 as my best year ever!"

"Activerain helped one of my past clients reconnect with me. After my client left town a few years ago, i lost touch with her. But, one day, I got a call from her telling me: fern, I lost your contact information and i did not know where to go. I wanted to tell you that i am back in town after 5 years of being away. SO I googled you and guess what i found your contact information on Activerain. So we reconnected! Activerain, you rock!"

"We had a great turn out of students in Panama City Beach this month. Rowlett Real Estate School has really been blessed. Blogging in ActiveRain has increased traffic to our website which in turn, has brought more students to our classes. Our business has been so good that we have expanded our classroom pre sales associate classes to Pensacola Florida.

Our first pre sales associate class in Pensacola is scheduled for the middle of this month. We have even hired on a new instructor named Carrie Hughes who will be teaching all the Pensacola classroom courses.
ActiveRain is the number one contributor to our success. We have great ranking and great visibility on the internet. Most all of our students testify that they found us on Google. Our classes have steadily increased and are operating at full capacity now.
Thanks ActiveRain!"

"I was hesitant at first...sure I am a writer at heart, but how could I blend personal and professional without giving away too much? After all I want advice but I want leads too!!

As a professional you must appear but that way, but being a person may not always reflect what is expected of you in your career. Then I realized I can't cater to EVERYONE!! Some will get some won't it's okay... it's life. I want to thrive in my business and continually grow, but not by losing myself because I feel I must be perceived a certain way because it is the INTERNET (stuff stays there forever!!!).

And I must say that I am growing everyday. From good content to wise counsel to meeting great people, my life IS thriving! I am happy to be a Realtor but even more proud to just be ME!!"

"I have had several people contact me via my comments posted here in ActiveRain. I find it very encouraging that my profile has been viewed over 15,000 times. I enjoy reading the comments to see different sides of the same story and learning how real estate is handled differently in other areas of our country so I can better anticipate how to deal with people relocating from those areas."

"I signed up years ago and never used active rain, I was like this is too much work. so this year I decided to give active rain a try again. I have received some valuable info and leads from brokers all over the U.S."

"I am an active blogger through ActiveRain offering the public good information that will help them avoid pitfalls and focus on current market trends and information. All you have to do is subscribe to my blog so as to not miss any of the lastest in real estate tips and news from " The Real Debbie Reynolds of Clarksville TN".

After writing some neighborhood posts on ActiveRain, I got a call from a buyer searching for a new real estate area. She said she found me on Google when searching for information on the Farmington Subdivision. I know the neighborhood well, about the schools and the builders. She may be interested in new construction and I wil be able to help her and her family get the home just the way they want it. Thanks ActiveRain.

I just when through a tough situation at a closing and blogged about it to my AR peers. Their ideas were great and gave me the push to see it through to the end. Thanks Rainmakers.

Having just completed my first big contest in ActiveRain, I found it to be exciting and challenging at the same time. Doing 10 FAQ posts to help my clients with the information they ask most often has given me a lot of satisfaction knowing that I will be helping them in the future. The purpose, of course, is to get the word out that I am the expert to contact in Clarksville TN about real estate. I can't wait to hear from some of my yet to meet "new friends and clients".

Just this week I decided to start a new group in ActiveRain called ActiveRain Anonymous. There are many of us that have confessed to being addicted to blogging and a little therapy is in order. So I formed the new group to support one another and lift each other up. Several have sign up and we look forward to many more joining us.

I got an email contact this week from a writer for a national Realtor's magazine. He had seen my blog about changing to a Mac computer and wanted to interview me for an article he is writing. Blogging works people find you! I will let you know how it turns out. 9-01-12

Blogging never ceases to amaze me. I wrote one post the other day about my tag line, The Real Debbie Reynolds and its origin. I got an email the very next day from another Debbie Reynolds who experiences similar questions with her name. She wants to meet when she comes to town to see her boyfriend's sister who lives in my town. You never know where your business may come from. September 2012

Developing realationships- I was working on a transaction with a fellow local real estate agent.She was quite cordial and although the transaction did not work out it was a pleaasure working with her on it. She said she had seen my blogs on ActiveRain and that she had just joined. She said that she enjoyed reading them. It enabled her to get to know me better and make it easier to work together. All of this is due to ActiveRain.

I transitioned to MacBook Pro this summer and blogged about it on ActiveRain. Shortly thereafter I received a call from a writer for Realtor Magazine, their on-line edition. He wanted to interview me for the October edition for an article about computers and printers and what agents were choosing. I got my name mentioned and here is the link to the article. Just copy and paste into your browser to see the article. ActiveRAin has Google power. http://realtormag.realtor.org/buyers-guide/computers-and-printers/2012/10/2012-computers-what-your-peers-use

I just got an invitation to be a part of another blogging network that appeals to the lending side of the business. They saw my blog on ActiveRain and realized I was an active blogger. Not only will this produce more organic leads for me, but it will offer me a chance to talk about some of my lending issues and how I can help people. Be looking for my blogs on Lender411.com.

4/2/13 I got 4 calls today because of my blogging. Each one of the callers had found information that I posted on my Activerain blog. Two were inquiring about neighborhoods and the others called because I posted information on the local area. I know this trend will continue and look forward to being able to help more and more people.

I had a client that needed real estate services in two other states. I went to Activerain first to learn about the agents in the area. I found help from two agents and now my client is in good hands. No more worries.

09/03/13- There is so much talk as to whether blogging works and if people find us because of it. I can attest that it does work. I got a call from a new buyer last week. I asked how he got my name and this is what he said. He was driving down the Road and saw the sign for my company Prudential PenFed Realty. He Googled it and said my name came up all over the first page. This is the result of a year and a half of steady posting on ActiveRain. I am being found and my posts will live forever.

02/14- Because of ActiveRain I am being recognized by other agents as the expert in certain neighborhoods. In fact I received a call from an agent in another company and she said "Debbie I understand you are the expert in the Farmington neighborhood." The only way she would know that is by Googling the neighborhood and seeing my name pop up. Thanks ActiveRain. If agents are seeing it, I know the public is too.

05/15/14- Who says blogging doesn't work? I got a call from a seller listed with another broker that had found one of my videos and wanted me to help her sell her home. Although she was in a listing agreement with a very reputable agent, I was able to reassure her that she just needed more market time and to be patient. She said she would remember me. And she found me through ActiveRain. Next time maybe I will be found first.

6/19/14- How many leads come in each month from blogging? I can't quite say but would say maybe 4-5 leads through my website or calls from neighborhood posts. It is easy to keep up regular blogging when business is being generated. Spreading it throughout social media channels it part of the secret to getting the word out.

8-27-14 It happened again today. A prospective buyer called that had found me through my blog and gone to my website to signup. After receiving listing updates for several weeks and getting to know me through my profile she called to tell me that she has decided she wants me to be her agent. Now that is a bright spot in my day.

12-06-14 If you ever wonder if business comes from your blogging then read this. I have been regularly posting over the last year about a particular neighborhood in my town. Two weeks ago I get a contact on my website from a family that would like to see one of the listings in this neighborhood. I show the house and they bought it two days later. This is when they tell me they have been following the neighborhood for a year and they finally got ready to make a move. If I had not been blogging I would not have earned the business."

"I love including pictures of my area in my blogs. One time I had some neat pictures of a great canyon that is just beautiful. This place is really off the beaten path, and not many people have heard of it. It's called Escalante Canyon. Within a few days of publishing that photo blog, I get an email from a gentleman that owns land in the area. He saw my blog and was impressed with my pictures and the information I included. He's thinking of selling the land, and wants to know if I'm interested in selling it if he does. Heck yes! What a beautiful place to have a listing.

One of the biggest benefits I've gotten from Active Rain is confidence. The confidence to share and write about my experiences. This has also lead to me having confidence in my business. Because I read so many other agents experiences, I've learned a ton. I've learned what to do and what not to do...some things are the same from state to state. I was a new agent when I started out. AR has given me confidence and knowledge well above my years of being licensed in this business.

My dad got left with having to sell a deceased relative's house. It was difficult for him. This was the house he grew up in. I live too far away to help him with this, but he wanted me to see if I could find an agent that would get the house sold. This is where Active Rain came in very handy. Researching for an agent was so easy. First I started by reading different agents' blog. This was like the pre interview before I made the phone. I didn't have to search very long or hard before I found the perfect agent to help my dad. Thanks AR.

The Active Rain community never ceases to amaze me. I'm hosting my first contest and everyone has been so supportive. This is a fun and easy one, and everyone is really getting into the spirit of it. I can't say enough about the wonder members from this community."

"ActiveRain has been an integral part of my over all personal marketing strategy. It became increasingly important when over a year ago I wrote a blog about bank foreclosures in the Tampa Florida area. That same day I received a call from a buyer who had just read my blog and recognized me as a local area expert with whom he wanted to do business. I received several other inquiries that week and still receive calls and e-mails from prospective clients over a year later from that blog. That sounds like success to me. Thanks ActiveRain for providing me with the knowledge and the opportunity.

"I've been a member of Active Rain since 2006. In those years, there has been many changes in both the real estate market as well as the Active rain platform. One thing, however, remains constant. This forum is an immensely valuable resource for my business. It is a wonderful place for meeting other real estate professionals to exchange tips and ideas and a great platform for showcasing our listings and all things real estate.

I have been privileged to both give and receive numerous referrals to my friends and co-workers here on ActiveRain. It’s an extremely valuable resource to find trusted professionals throughout the country as well as internationally.

In addition, my blog has been read extensively and I continue to receive wonderful feedback from both readers as well as clients who run across my posts.

"The people I have been in contact with, are by far the most professional group of individuals that I have had the pleasure to deal with. I don't blog much, but I do read posts almost every day and have learned to look forward to and give the respect the comments deserve of the ActiveRain members."

"Motivational Monday: ActiveRain and Google are like glue. They're sticky!

A potential buyer called regarding golf course properties in the St. George, Utah area saying she saw my name on Google and was considering purchasing a second home in southern Utah.

For those who still are on the fence about whether posting and blogging works, this future client could have called the other 600+ agents in my selling area but instead phoned me. Some marketing ideas are like rubber and bounce right off but ActiveRain and Google are like glue. They're sticky!

"A few days after I wrote my first post on ActiveRain, a consumer who found it in a Google search called to list her home with me. Then another consumer found me within a week of that and I got a 2nd listing. Needless to say, these results made a believer out of me.

Those were the first of many consumers who found me through ActiveRain, both sellers and buyers. This is the best source of quality leads I've ever discovered in my 4-decade real estate career."

"I joined Active Rain in June of 2008. At first I was scared, not knowing what to write about. It didn't take long for me to figure everything out. I committed myself to studying Active Rain daily starting at 6am to 7:30am and learning as much as I could each day. The information here is better than any Boot Camp or Training Course any real estate company can offer you. The sharing of knowledge and relationships that you can form here are beyond priceless. Active Rain is changing the real estate industry.

In two short months once I got the hang of things, the phone started ringing. Prospective buyers were already bonded to me when they called and sellers wanted my marketing. The news reporters started to call, the newspaper reporters all wanted information from me who appeared to be deep in the trenches of what was really happening in our Real Estate Market. That's when the light bulb came on . If the media is seeing my Active Rain Blog then consumers were as well. I decided right then and there I needed to decide who I wanted to write my blog for. Did I want to do Localism Posts to attract relocating buyers or did I want to work with Sellers, Buyers. I didn't know. What I did know is I did not want to be a roving reported hunting down the newest restaurant, the newest place of business. I'm a Realtor, that's what I know. So I write about Real Estate. I use my clients experiences and questions as inspiration for my next post. And guess what happened. MAGIC! People are finding me weekly now!

For 17 years I've been a team mate under a team leader. No sales volume goes in my name and I was always what we call a Secret Agent. Not anymore..the Active Rain platform helped me find my voice and my confidence and help me brand myself within our company! I was also asked by my Broker to teach an ongoing Blog Class.( I love it!)

It doesn't end there. Both my business partner and I write AR Blogs. Last year our closed volume was 6 Million Dollars and we track where the leads come from. Over half of our closed business was directly from the AR Blog/Internet Leads. Plus in the month of December we had added 122 Buyer Leads to our database. The phone rings constantly now, that was not happening before ACTIVE RAIN!

2009 is off to an amazing start. If you haven't joined Active Rain or you just haven't committed to it daily.

Fast forward to 2011 and 2102. My Active Rain and Outside Blog titled Lake Ridge Virginia Real Estate News helped me become the top producer in my EXIT CHOICE Realty office here in Woodbridge Virginia. While other agents struggle with the change from old school marketing to the social media age. I found success continued with my real estate blog. People in the local are were finding me online and calling asking for my help.

"AR referrals are the best. I have given and received many referrals that have turned into successful transactions. It has allowed me to network with some great agents around the country making my relocation base more powerful.
Not a day goes by that I do not learn something new on AR. The marketing ideas, blogging tips, SEO advice all are great and when I implement the ideas great things continue to happen.

Branding is more important now then ever. A slogan a color scheme something of value to set you a part from every one else. I have found many tools on AR to help me with my branding. Now many people in recognize and remember me."

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Disclaimer: ActiveRain, Inc. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site.
These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them
make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles,
that are written by the members of this community.